Felton Institute uplifts unhoused and housing-insecure populations by engaging directly with clients to remove barriers to housing. Partnering with the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), Felton provides compassion and empathy to all we serve. HSH leads the city in providing services that get vulnerable populations into safe and secure housing. A proven leader in reducing homeless populations, HSH centers dignity and compassion, and values increasing equity for unhoused and housing-insecure individuals. HSH Executive Director, Shireen McSpadden, explained that ultimately, “Our goal is to get people off the streets and into housing.”
Launched in 2016, HSH provides housing, shelter, and outreach to San Francisco’s unhoused populations. “We meet them where they’re at,” Ms. McSpadden explained. “We work with them so that we can understand what resources they really need.” By providing prevention strategies, outreach, and securing short and long-term housing, HSH provides solutions that empower unhoused and insecurely housed people. “While we know that we’ve got more people who are on the street than we always have resources for,” Ms. McSpadden said, “we can say every day that we are housing people and that we are providing or helping them on their road to success through our interventions.”
HSH’s success in serving unhoused populations was exemplified in a recent Mayoral report. San Francisco Mayor Breed announced that homelessness in San Francisco had reached a ten-year low. Ms. McSpadden explained that this success was due to a variety of reasons including the success of Mayor Breed’s implementation strategies and increased staffing and monetary resources into housing and HSH. These strategies led to successful outcomes. Ms. McSpadden explained that HSH exceeded their goal for providing shelter when they reached their five-year goal for shelter in just two and a half years. But there is still more work to be done “We have exceeded that goal much more quickly and we’ve now set a new goal for shelters because we know we still need more,” Ms. McSpadden said.
Felton Institute’s partnership with HSH ensures positive outcomes for unhoused and insecurely housed people. HSH hand-picked Felton Institute to take over some of their programming. “Felton has come in and really strengthened some of our sites,” McSpadden said. “They came in and worked at Pier 94, which was a shelter-in-place RV park that we had. They helped us transition people to other places. They also have helped with hotels, clients, and with the drop-in center in Bayview to ensure that people have a place to go.”
In partnership, HSH and Felton Institute provide resources and services to the city’s unhoused and insecurely housed populations. Together, they create impactful, meaningful change for the city’s most vulnerable people. Ms. McSpadden extended her gratitude to Felton Institute, “I want to thank Felton Institute President and CEO Al Gilbert and everyone at Felton who works with these programs.”
Felton Institute responds to the needs of our community by providing innovative, evidence-informed social services to transform lives. Our organization offers 50+ programs that address mental health, the unhoused, early care and education, those impacted by the justice system, transitional age youth, as well as aging adults. Our award-winning programs, which have been recognized as national models, combine the latest scientific research with cultural sensitivity and a deep commitment to supporting and reflecting the communities we serve.
Founded in 1889, Felton is the oldest secular non-profit social services provider in the City and County of San Francisco. We have expanded our services across most Bay Area counties and continue to be at the forefront of pioneering new approaches to meet the emerging needs of underserved populations.
We know what it looks like to successfully build community.
We foster impactful change by strengthening the community as a premiere service provider. We also strengthen other service providers by supporting them in their fiscal, human resources, communications, IT and overall agency operations. With Felton’s support, they are able to focus on providing the best services to their clients, doing the work they were meant to do.
Felton empowers the community and ensures successful outcomes to all we engage with.
Felton Institute is a tax-exempt organization registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit under EIN 94-1156530.